Blogs

Jeter's Next Big Swing

"I don't miss playings," says the retired Yankee, as the press-shy captain leads website The Players' Tribune, where DeAndre Jordan and Tiger Woods break news (sorry, ESPN) and backers are betting on a media home run

BBC America's 'Intruders' Embraces Mystery

From writer/executive producer Glen Morgan (The X-Files), the scripted drama — based on Michael Marshall Smith's 2007 novel, originally intended to be a trilogy — is centered on a secret society devoted to chasing immortality by seeking refuge in the bodies of others. John Simm, Mira Sorvino, James Frain and Millie Brown star. While the Intruders premise breeds questions, don’t expect a lot of answers.

“You’ll know some stuff, but it’s a testament of BBC and Glen’s writing that we got away with that,” director Eduardo Sanchez told reporters Wednesday, during a summer press tour, of the lack of resolution.

Morgan embraced the opportunity to unravel a story as slow-burning as Intruders. “Every network experience I’ve had…they go, ‘Do we have to do that?’ Then they keep pulling back,” he said of broadcast and cable networks’ tendencies to leave little to the imagination.

“Everything is a question, and eventually there are answers,” said executive producer Jane Tranter. “You have to be intrigued and wait."

Had Intruders been on another network, Morgan posited that many of the mysteries that remained at the end of the first episode would have had to be answered. For instance, that one of its characters, Madison (Brown), had another spirit inside her.

Morgan said that Intruders is similar to the novel in that for “three-quarters” of the book — the basis for the first four episodes — readers have an idea “of what might happen.” The show begins to veer off in the final four episodes “a little bit,” he said.

Morgan said his time on The X-Files alongside Chris Carter helped his approach with Intruders. The most valuable lesson he learned? “To stand your ground,” he said, recalling that the first season of The X-Files, the network wanted a more procedural take with a sci-fi bent. “They wanted a ‘Who does Scully and Mulder help today?’ ”